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History of Massachusetts

Try to answer these questions about the history of the state of Massachusetts.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 28, 2018
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First submittedMay 26, 2017
Times taken6,508
Average score76.2%
Rating4.07
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Question
Answer
What ship brought the Pilgrims to Massachusetts?
The Mayflower
What landmark can be found near their landing site?
Plymouth Rock
What holiday was celebrated for the first time (sort of) in 1621?
Thanksgiving
What town is famous for its witch trials of 1692 and 1693?
Salem
What product did the Sons of Liberty throw into Boston Harbor in a 1773 "party"?
Tea
What Massachusetts resident was the first person to sign the
Declaration of Independence?
John Hancock
What name was shared by the second and sixth Presidents of the United States?
John Adams
What folk hero was born in Massachusetts and went on to plant
apple trees across the Midwest?
Johnny Appleseed
What city was the center of the U.S. textile industry in the 1800s?
Lowell
What novel by Herman Melville was about a Nantucket whaler?
Moby-Dick
Who spent two years roughing it in the not-so-remote area of Walden Pond?
Henry David Thoreau
What university, founded in 1636, was the first institute of higher learning in the U.S.?
Harvard
What game was invented by James Naismith in Springfield in 1891?
Basketball
What team was "cursed" for 86 years after trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees?
Red Sox
Name the Massachusetts politicians who have been a major party
nominee for President since 1980
Mitt Romney
John Kerry
Michael Dukakis
What was the last name of brothers John, Robert, and Ted?
Kennedy
What sporting event was bombed in 2013?
Boston Marathon
What 1997 film's script was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck?
Good Will Hunting
What was 1960s serial killer Albert DeSalvo better known as?
Boston Strangler
+10
Level 85
May 26, 2017
Roughing it, with his mother doing his laundry.
+6
Level 69
Oct 6, 2018
No kidding! I love the dawning surprise on tourists' faces when they realize that Walden Pond is a comfortable less-than-two-mile stroll from what is now, and what was also at the time, downtown Concord. His book makes it sound like he was in the remote tundra of Tibet or something.
+3
Level 89
Oct 27, 2018
When he went to Mt. Katahdin in Maine, that was and still is remote. It wasn't even ascended until the 1800s. Walden was indeed a puddle across town.
+3
Level 89
May 26, 2017
The Harvard question is appearing in the answers, but not in the original list of questions.
+3
Level 84
May 26, 2017
This is the second quiz in less than a week in which this stuff happens (the other was the Stalin quiz). QM, can you check why this is happening?
+5
Level ∞
May 26, 2017
Fixed. I guess I'll have to fire our quality assurance engineer.
+3
Level 77
May 26, 2017
I was wondering why the % was so low. Got it cause I was just typing in stuff..
+3
Level 90
May 26, 2017
I got 20/21 with 1:30 left to blindly guess the 21st answer. Never occurred to me to try 'Harvard' :)
+3
Level 60
May 29, 2017
After I got Kerry and Romney, I started guessing candidates like Mondale (forgot he was from Minnesota) and Jill Stein. Finally got Dukakis after a full 30 seconds
+3
Level 82
Jan 22, 2018
Dukakis was the first one I got. Was John Kennedy not a major party nominee for president?
+3
Level 81
Jan 22, 2018
Question is since 1980. I was going to try Ted Kennedy, but he didn't win the nomination.
+4
Level 80
Jun 19, 2017
Make a History of Connecticut one
+3
Level 77
Oct 14, 2017
I am disappointed at getting only 13 on a quiz about my state. I should have gotten Lowell and Thoreau... Oh, and definitely Kennedy.
+3
Level 44
Jan 22, 2018
Got them all (as a lifelong resident of MA I should have)! Great quiz! MA is the best state in the country
+3
Level 67
Jan 22, 2018
He was not technically a Massachusetts politician but G.H.W. Bush was born in Mass and W was born in CT.
+8
Level 75
Jan 22, 2018
Just to add a bit of trivia, Johnny Appleseed's real name was John Chapman. (I learned that in Girl Scouts in the 1960s.)
+3
Level 73
Jan 22, 2018
2:18, from Arizona. So much history has run through New England. Pretty neat to have so much history in such a small state.
+3
Level 83
Jan 24, 2018
Technically Babe Ruth was sold, not traded.
+3
Level 73
Jan 27, 2018
I think getting 18/21 is pretty good considering I live in California and I have never been to Massachusetts.
+1
Level 67
Oct 23, 2021
Totally forgot Romney ran for president lol.
+1
Level 81
Apr 2, 2023
For some reason, I always confuse Henry David Thoreau and WEB Du Bois. No idea why